You can do a lot of things with Google Desktop, and use it as an advanced widget and sidebar engine—but what if you really just want a better system-wide search tool? The Google Operating System blog drills down on the latest Google Desktop release to get better performance and speed out of its file-finding function. From staight-up preference changing to registry hacking, you can force the handy app to focus only on those things you want to retrieve later even before installation, but the author recommends at least one change for new and existing users alike:

* Exclude folders from indexing. Since Google Desktop tries to index files from your entire hard disk, it's important to exclude the folders that don't contain useful files for a desktop search engine. Some examples: C:\Program Files\ (don't exclude it if you use Google Desktop to launch apps) C:\Windows\ (don't exclude it if you use Google Desktop to launch apps) C:\ProgramData\ (in Vista) D:\ (if D: is used for backup)

Got any Google Desktop gripes/speed-ups of your own? Offer them up in the comments.